Friday, March 05, 2010

Women's Month/Women's Day (by Suzie)

This is National Women's History Month. If women's history matters to you, check with public libraries, schools, women's prisons and other facilities that might welcome a donation of books. The National Women's History Project, which is celebrating its 30th year, has a good selection as well as an auction throughout March.

(The auction service, Bidding for Good, has a product placement service in which companies advertise their product at a wholesale cost. If you want to ensure all of your money goes to NWHP, bid on items that pertain to women's history and ask questions about anything that has "CMP" in the item number.)

As the NWHP notes, this also is the 90th anniversary of the 19th Amendment, allowing women to vote. The HerStory Scrapbook is presenting the story of a woman who fought for suffrage each day until the end of March.

Equality Now and the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights will present "Women Can't Wait!," written and performed by Tony-Award winner Sarah Jones, from 1:15 to 2:30 p.m. TODAY. Meryl Streep will give the introduction. The webcast is in honor of International Women's Day and the 15th anniversary of the Beijing Conference on Women. Ms. Magazine says Jones

portrays eight different women from around the world, all living under laws that violate their human rights. There's Praveen of India, who suffers years of marital rape (not a punishable crime in India); Hala of Jordan, whose sister's murder is sanctioned by a penal code that exempts "honor killings"; Anna of Kenya, who would rather have a sweet-sixteen than be a victim of female genital mutilation. Jones's ability to slip from character to character is an act of beautiful manipulation; the accents are so impeccable, the personalities so sharply drawn, that she needs only one prop—a scarf that becomes a sash, a head wrap, a doll—to transform the letter of the law into palpable reality.

International Women's Day is March 8. WMNF, the community radio in Tampa, will play nothing but women's voices all day. You can listen online and see their play list. I guarantee you'll hear artists you never heard before.

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